TTFE

It doesn’t take long for Phillips to wind up a crowd…

It has been a long time coming but finally Chris Phillips will take centre stage in the final Quarter Final of the first ever Team Picker Cup. As architect of the competition and after weeks of convincing players that it could ever happen, he will now make his mark against Callum Gigg in what will be a tricky fixture. And not to mention a real contrast in volume between them!

This week will signal the end of what has been an exciting round so far – full of goals, guile and the occasional goading. It has also been tinged with the odd bit of controversy too, with goal line scrambles and handball calls. It would be naive to think that will end here – especially with Phillips involved.

• TPC Fact: Experience is the key. Each player that has been eliminated so far has only picked once according to the Team Picking list; the victor having picked twice or more. This week this trend will come to an end as both players have picked teams at least twice (Phillips 4 times, Gigg twice).  

If you believe the hype and all the fighting talk, this tie is merely a formality for Phillips on his path to T-shirt-covered glory. The calibre of his opponent is irrelevant as his name is already written on the trophy, he claims.  Respected legends of the game have lambasted “Plasmo” for his utter lack of respect for not just his Quarter Final opponent, but anyone who will face. Former 5-a-side football professional Willie Maykit is among those who feel Phillips has taken his arrogance to a whole new level. “He may be brimming with confidence, but the field is littered with worthy knights who want to claim the throne” he said. “I bloody hope Gigg gives him a good kicking! Go Barbarian!”

Has Gigg been pillaging a bit too much?

With the media whirlwind surrounding Phillips, one would forget the more modest challenger known in TTFE circles as the ‘Barbarian’. Callum Gigg, fiercely patriotic and known for his reflective demeanour, will surely be quietly plotting the downfall of TTFE’s most famous extrovert. However some aides in his camp have started to worry about Gigg, feeling that he’s taking his adopted nickname way too seriously. Our insider told us: “He’s flipped his lid. I mean seriously. He watched Conan The Barbarian non stop all week and you can see the blood lust in his eyes. I asked him about his strategy and he told me bluntly  that it is ‘to crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women’ – I would not want to be Plasmo right about now”.

Meanwhile TPC organisers have been criticised by players and fans alike for the length of last week’s opening ceremony. Intended on adding glamour and glitz to the competition and to bring in viewers from the Olympics, it was widely slammed on social media website Twitter as being too cheap and too long. One tweet said, “Do the TPC think we’re stupid? Fake Michael Buffer and less game time #TPCFail”., whilst another said “Crap TPC game and ceremony last week. Mr Loverman was a fat white guy and superman didn’t even fly.”

TPC organisers are yet to comment on the matter and no ceremony has been planned for this week’s game or any of the semi finals.

This writer has very little to say this week. Everyone is expecting it to be such a 1 sided affair that writing anything about it would simply be cruel to poor Callum who only has a day left in the competition!

Is it just me, or do our captains look photoshopped?

It was a very one sided affair at Sophia last week as Team Big G, led by Gareth O’Neill, ran riot to win 12-5 over Team Joe Newbury.

And do you know what? They did pick him!

Team Big G (Clockwise from left: Billy, Greg?, Jon, Mike, Callum, Pugh, Paul, G)

Team Joe (Clockwise from left: Tom, Greg, Chris, Gaji, Luco, Stu, Joe)

SuperGaz!

James Pugh V Billy Collins

James Pugh (4) V (8) Billy Collins


Billy Collins became the second semi finalist in the Team Picker Cup as his side proved too strong for James Pugh’s side with a 8-4 win.

TPC officials will be concerned however that this game was the second in a row  to be shrouded in controversy – again with a goal line clearance, and this time with a different method in setting which player picks first. The rules state that the contestant who received the lowest number in the draw picks first but in this game the order was decided by coin toss, to which both contestants agreed. The coin toss fell in Collins’ favour giving him first pick, when according to the rules it should gone to Pugh.

A small victory – Greg’s second game not being picked last!

In footballing matters, Team Pugh got off to a flyer after a horrendous mistake by Team Billy which left a one-on-one with the keeper. Team Billy passed the ball well but seemed to lack that cutting edge in front of goal. They seemed to find greater potency on the counter attack and then marched on a goal blitz scoring 5 goals with no reply. Half time came and Team Pugh needed to climb a real Everest of a mountain to come back from 5-1.

Hear me roar!

The game continued to move in waves in the second half as it was time for Team Pugh to show their metal. It was clear that their team talk wasn’t all about the oranges and self pity, as they looked like men on a mission to win the game for their captain. They pegged Team Billy back to 5-4 and now looked on course to tie the game. In their great comeback they also claimed that a flick-over shot by Tom which beat the keeper actually passed the goal line as it hit the netting. However the defence ruled it out so the goal wasn’t given, similar to last week’s incident for Team Gaji. With the single goal cushion making them sweat, Team Billy finally started to find their feet and the game drifted back into their favour with three more goals to kill the game off. Full time score 8-4.

Collins knew his side stared at the abyss and almost fell straight in, so he certainly felt that he was the luckiest man on the pitch. He thanked each member of his team and talked down his own performance and role that night, stating they pulled him through the tense second half of the game. Pugh, in true character, was dignified in defeat.


The win for Collins means that only two players have actually been on the winning side in the last two fixtures – Joe Newbury and Gareth O’Neill. What a fair lady Fate should be to pit these two players against each other in the next quarter final, where only one player will have won all three matches. The winner of this game will face Jon Ridout in the semi finals.            

Team Pugh – (Clockwise from left – Paul, Luco, Greg, Stu, Tom, Pugh)

Team Billy (Clockwise from left – Joe, G, Chris, Gaji, Paul, Billy)

So the next game will be the big man himself; Gareth “Big G” O’Neill up against, the other big man; Joe ‘Shabba’ Newbury.

We, here at TTFE Team Picker Cup Headquarters do not know how this will go down or who will come out on top, but we do know it’s going to be BIG and will decide who plays against our first TPC game winner Jon Ridout in the first of the semi-finals.

Before we get to that though, we need to take a look forward to this 3rd quarter final. In the latest we’ve heard, Joe is favourite to win having inspired teams in the past with chants such as;

“If you lose it, get it back!”

But that’s not to say Joe is the only one to bring a catch phrase into this clash, Big G has been known for one or 2 himself!;

“Argghhh, F***ing C***!”

So, knowing the passion O’Neill brings to every game; we can only assume it’s going to start off as a heated affair, continue to increase in intensity as the game goes on and all end in tears… the only real questions remaning are….

Who’s tears?!
Will there be another controversial goal?
and;
Who will be taking on Jon Ridout in the semi-final!

… and we’re not just talking about the score line.

In the game between Billy Collins and James Pugh where Billy had first pick despite it originally being Pugh’s (some confusion before the game resulted in a coin toss being the deciding factor!) the weather was almost as close as the score line!

I’m sure there is a full match report coming from our normal author but for now, let’s just say it was a good one!

We are now only 24 hours away from the second Team Picker Cup Quarter Final between Billy Collins and James Pugh, in what will surely be an interesting encounter to see who will be the second player to reach the semi finals.

Tally ho old chap, I say – one should keep it in their pants!

I just can’t see why the odds are so high…

Collins has been made slight favourite by the bookies and pundits suggest it will be a tight affair. However the mood in the Bridgend Valleys, where Pugh is currently residing, is certainly optimistic. One punter from Nantymoel said: “I reckon Jimmy Pugh will see it through! Ha ha, that rhymed!”. Meanwhile in Cardiff, amidst the Olympic fever hitting the capital, a flurry of bets have gone down on Collins to reach the semi finals. Although we believe from the people we spoke to that they were confused – they were convinced he was one of the Team GB Olympic cyclists as they saw him riding around on his fancy bicycle. And who could blame them!

In the build up to the big game this Thursday, James Pugh’s hotmail account has been hacked.

Rumours are that Billy Collins Utd. Enthusiasts were interested in espianage to see if there were any team ideas stored here.

James Pugh is yet to comment but it is believe that he will deny any information about the TPC would have been stored in there, let alone found!

Jon Ridout progresses to the semi finals of the TTFE Team Picker Cup after a hard-fought 6-5 victory over Gareth ‘Gaji’ Jenkins in the tournament’s opening game. 

In what was an absorbing game between evenly matched teams, both contestants prior to picking their sides gave  little indication of any strategy or a particular tactic in which players they would pick first. Each team however boasted an even balance of a keeper, defence and attack, with both Gaji and Jon’s playing the latter position. 

It was a bitter sweet end to the match, which although was a great game to play, players could not help but to be sympathetic to Gaji who looked forlorn in defeat. Meanwhile Jon offered a hand to each of his opponents and a big thanks to the members of his team for their final effort in swiping an impressive win. He will now play either Joe Newbury or Gareth O’Neill in Game 3 of the competition.     

Team Gaji: (clockwise from left) Peter, Callum, Gaji, Paul, Pugh, Billy, Chris

Team Jon: (clockwise from left) Stu, Gareth, Greg, Tom, Mike, Joe, Jon